conquistadors who took their share

so last weekend i dragged the architect to see control; the new biography of ian curtis by anton corbijn. if you are a fan of joy division, you must see this film. if you are not a fan of joy division, but are a fan of film and music, you really *should* see this film. to poach from another review, corbijn rescues viewers from the 'shiny happy' musical biopics we have seen for the past few years (i.e. ray, dreamgirls) and, for a hundred minutes or so, allows the audience to follow along with curtis' rise and subsequent fall. everyone knows how the story ends, and yet i found myself anticipating the band's success despite that knowledge. for me, that is the sign of a good film, and a good story - when you are hoping that somehow, at the end, romeo and juliet will live happily ever after; that king arthur won't be killed by his son, that ian curtis won't hang himself on the eve of the american tour.

it's beautiful and dark and inspiring and haunting. highly recommended.

don't want to close my eyes

i have no idea why that song's in my head this morning. i'm not a fan of aerosmith by any means... ooo the architect and i found a sweet little garden apartment down by balboa park - totally restored 20s vintage with hardwood floors... so sweet and in our pricerange. i emailed the property manager to see if we could view it. plus it's pet friendly so we can bring tonymontana down with us at christmas. i guess he's having a rough time at my parents place because the dog just won't leave him alone, and is very jealous of any attention given to him. worse than kids, these pets.

here's a funny piece of trivia for you to pass on if you will: last night i used 'patootie' in a scrabulous game, and was informed that 'patoot' is cree for vajayjay. how fun is that? i wonder if that's where the word came from.... modern english is such a wonderful hodgepodge of so many other languages. i love words. ok done with the geeking out.

some stuff i've been perusing:
1) from slate - a cool article about black metal and environmentalism.
2) also from slate - musings on the death of email in the wake of facebook and other social networking sites
3) from cracked - 9 words that don't mean what you think (man i wish i had this back when i was teaching...)

le sigh

i miss having friends.

the sun's coming in through the window and highlighting all of the fingerprints on my computer screen

it's funny how reading certain writers can make you want to write more write better write with a certain modicum of legibility and coherence. for me it's chuck klosterman and tony pierce. i've read a bit of both this am so here i am tappity tapping away while the architect is at work. i guess veteran's day isn't an 'everyone off' day like it is back home; it's really more of a bank holiday.

i kind of missed its approach, this year, because people don't do the poppy thing round these parts. maybe next year i'll ask someone to send me one in advance because, like so many other things i didn't understand or appreciate when i was a shitty little brat, remembrance day has sort of become important to me.

or maybe it's that i didn't know it was important to me until all of a sudden it wasn't there.

----------------------------------------------------------

the architect and i spent saturday (i kid you not - we left the house before 9am and didn't return until past six. we spent ALL SATURDAY) shopping for our little abode. it's starting to become more of a home. i don't think either one of us expected to feel at all comfortable here; when we stayed here the last time it was being used as office space / storage by his cousins and so it felt cluttered and dusty and ... not cozy. now, though, we've had some good meals and sipped some nice wine and played some dominoes. it can't be a home without the dominoes.

today i think i'm off to a cafe patio with my book. that, or i may take the bicyclette down to balboa park and lounge about and read. i can't quite decide...

just a little heat

is it just me who sees a craigslist posting titled ROCKER - $60 and expects the link to lead to a picture of somebody who looks a little like this guy?

watch this mo-fo-ers

r/r

just shut your eyes... it's happening

well hello! and welcome to san diego! it's not sunny here, and hasn't been since we arrived. i have been assured, however, that the locals are currently relishing the opportunity to wear their sweaters, and that when it's 80degrees and sunny at christmas i will be longing for this weather.

heh. ya right. at christmas i'll be in vancouver IN THE RAIN. bring on the 80degree sunniness, i say.

interestingly, i'm lying here in bed listening to my favourite vancouver rainyday band the be good tanyas. i mean, let's put this all in perspective: back home it's pouring and 8 degrees. here outside is overcast and +16 flavoured. we went for a walk after dinner last night and didn't *really* need hoodies. so i can't complain *too* too much - just a bit, right?

right.

so anyway, now that i'm unpacked and a little bit more organized i shall do my utmost to post here at least once daily. i've got some grand plans for my little brain, and i'm reading the new chuck klosterman book, so that always does good things for my writing.

i can't make any promises, of course, 'cause i wouldn't want you to have anything to hold against me (unless it's dave grohl - you can hold him against me all the time if you want).

PS - that's the view from my front door. wanna come visit?

it's 3am i must be lonely

i have no idea what frickin time it is. angus' clock says it's 6, my house clocks say 6, and my mobile thinks its 5. i'm all screwed up.... i'm lying here waiting to fall asleep, listening to satie and the slight sounds of snoring emanating from the architect... my brain is running about a million miles per second and i just want to sleep.... oh and know what time it is. maybe if i just knew the right time it would all be ok... probably not though.

the cat is crawling around, trying to get under the blankets, looking for attention i haven't the attention span to give him.

we had such a good night out... dinner at rime, parade of lost souls.. drinks at a friends... dancing dancing dancing at the dollhouse till the wee hours (what time? no idea... for gods sake will someone tell me what time it is?) ok satie is getting too jangly for my nerves... garden state soundtrack it is. cat wants out of the bedroom architect still snoring away... brain still running running a billion miles a second. (you'd think it would slow down thanks to the tylenol pm and the 24(?) hours i've been awake but no it just goes faster and faster waiting for the drugs to be over or at least for the new ones to kick in.

less than a week till d-day, or should i say sd-day... the kiddo will be in his new place with the sister ok i have to let the cat out for gods sake ... i'm sure its for the best the catbox and/or foodbowl call sing their sirens song like the one in my head waiting waiting to fall asleep please god let me just sleep...

courage, my word

i've been watching these fires in san diego with a great deal of interest (which is, surprisingly, surprising to some people). the sister feels that i've become a bit obsessed (though that's fading), but i think it's at least somewhat understandable. this place to which i'm shifting my entire realm of existence is in flames. bad omen? possibly.

or, it could mean nothing at all, other than the fact that i'll probably have some seriously bad allergies for the first few weeks i'm there, as they are expecting the air quality to be in the tank for some time.

i have been making some inroads into the packing, which is to say that i've been tackling it a box or two or four a day. i've got all my books squared away and experienced a bit of a panic attack slash dark soul teatime when we sold our bookcases = they really did make our dining area oh-so-homey and warm. le sigh. the architect chided me for becoming attached to *things*. i tried to make him understand that it wasn't the bookshelves i missed, it was the atmosphere they brought to the room. what does he know, though, he's a boy.

the cat and i are spooning. he's forgiven me, clearly, for collaring him (literally). he's going to stay with the parents for a few months and he's got a tendency to escape, there, and i worry so i purchased a collar with a tag engraved with his name and our phone number. you know, just in case, 'cause he's my little fuzzy no-nuts. yesterday, however he was royally pissed and he (literally) pissed on the sister's slippers. heh.

bleh.

i'm a wee bit sensitive today. i feel like hiding in my bed with my book and/or my computer, so perhaps i will.

le sigh.

i can't tell if this is general malaise, the result of a night chock full of bad dreams and restlessness, or my impending girl time. probably a combination of all three, really.

well not to mention the fact that i no longer have medical, so i've been hoarding my meds 'cause they've all of a sudden gotten extremely expensive. probably not the best plan, but there it is.

not to mention the fact that i've got all vowels in one of my scrabble games....

like a river flows

man i've been lowballing my blog. i admit it. it's been like mental masturbation - i put my fingers on the keyboard and these pithy non sequitors come out. i'm just going through the motions and we all know it. i don't know what it's going to take for me to go back to writing like i can. i sit and clickclickclack through the archives and remember what it's like to do it - what it's like to put down words and have them *feel* like something *mean* something, i just don't remember how to do it.

how can i reconnect my creativity with my emotion? is it true that only miserable people are creative? is it true that i'm only creative when i'm miserable?

i dunno. maybe when i'm wandering the streets of san diego, camera and notebook in hand i'll see stuff that ... ughn for the lack of a better word inspires me.

fuck how emo can i get?

hello how are you

it's amazing how busy i find myself, now that i'm technically unemployed. every day seems to fill itself up so quickly. who's got time to pack when there are cars to wash and wine to purchase and drink?

(here's a secret - some sick impulse drove me to purchase and eat a macdonalds cheeseburger happy meal yesterday. not only did it not kill me, it was delicious. seriously. i'm not sure what this means (can i eat beef? do i want to? maybe there isn't enough beef in a macdonalds cheeseburger to really have an impact - could it be 97% sawdust?) but what i do know is that the other day i ate a tim horton's bagel with tomato and puked my guts out, but the burger simply went down like heaven. figure that out.)

i apologize for the poor quality and number of photos being displayed in my newfound return to the blawg. the architect mistakenly took my camera cable to san diego with him, so i'm stuck using my phone. it takes not bad photos, but they still have that camera phone feel.

hm whass new - let me think. not too much, really, aside from rapidly running out of money, and having a new haircut. oh and have i mentioned that i haven't started packing?

heh whoops...

clickaround

and here you never thought you'd get tired of me....
go here for more arcade fire fun-ness.

bestill my beating heart

the constantines are a band burdened by our truthfullness. pile the facts like guitar tracks.

the lonely end of the rink

so i'm surfing around the innerweb this morning, coffee cup in hand (remarkably difficult on an innerweb surfboard when you've not had enough sleep) and i came across this story, in which nate dimeo (the author) makes a very strong case for restructuring the NHL to a model based on pro-football (soccer). it's definitely worth reading. there are flaws in there, somewhere, but i'm too sleepy and haven't had enough coffee to spot them.

i did my 'thanksgiving dinner for lost waifs and orphans' last night. every year i say it's going to be smaller than last year, and every year it ends up being just slightly bigger. this year 13 friends made the trek out to L-Town, and (if i do say so myself) it ended up being a rousing success. the only thing which could have made it better is if the archtect weren't in san diego. le sigh.

oh also if i weren't allergic to dessert and could have sampled the pumpkin chai cheesecake and banana cream pie.....

i watched you change into a fly

i think i want to make my hair this colour again. i've been blondeblonde for so long now (ok with a bit of pink but still) and i want to have some interestingness. esp. since i'm moving to california - can't just be another blonde, you know....

r'n'r wants to know why a dragonfly... do you ever think you have a totem? an animal guide? i used to think that mine was a cat but now i think it might be a dragonfly. i feel peaceful when i watch them, and drawn to them, and as though they are drawn to me. i found this about them online:

Dragonfly symbolism crosses and combines with that of the butterfly and change. The dragonfly symbolizes going past self-created illusions that limit our growing and changing. Dragonflies are a symbol of the sense of self that comes with maturity.

They are fantastic flyers, darting like light, twisting, turning, changing direction, even going backwards as the need arises. They are inhabitants of two realms - starting with water, and moving to the air with maturity, but staying close to water. Some people who have the dragonfly as their totem have had emotional and passionate early years, but as they get older they achieve balance with mental clarity and control. They gain an expression of the emotional and mental together.

Dragonflies are old and adaptive insects, and are most powerful in the summer under the effects of warmth and sunlight. Their colors are a result of reflecting and refracting the power of light. As a result, they are associated with color magic, illusion in causing others only to see what you wish, and other mysticism.

it seems right.

ps - i got ordained. heh. how funny is that? anyone wants to get married in san diego, i'm your girl. oh- i mean, i'm your reverend....

change my direction, i'm gonna change my ways

the problem with skinny jeans is that when you are sort of drunk and trying to get them off, inevitably one foot gets caught and you end up windmilling around your bedroom with the cat watching sardonically from the windowsill, hoping you don't fall and hit your head causing you to pass out so that the kiddo finds you, unconscious and bleeding with your pants most of the way off.

PS

from tony the blogfather:

"how much magic are you bringing to peoples lives? how much do you wanna bring?

i believe theres a little arcade fire in all of us.

if we wanna use it. but rarely do we ever. and if we do its usually for some lame boss or someone who doesnt appreciate it, or care.

october is an excellent time to bring a little magic, i believe."

half the words don't mean a thing and i know i won't be satisfied

so i'm addicted to facebook scrabble. i can't help myself. i have 5 games on the go all the time, it seems like, and i log in at least three times an hour to see if it's my turn.

there it is - on the page - the real reason my poor blog has been neglected. i'm addicted to scrabulous.

le sigh.

oh it's also clive owen's bidet. no word on whether his handsome bitter british self is jewish or not, but we'll make some allowances, ok? i thought so....


i need to redo my template. i'm bored with the clean line version. it's not like i don't have the time to do it or anything, but it surely smacks of effort. anyone want to give it a shot? or at least offer some suggestions? i feel as though i should make a clean start what with this being the purgatory between two chapters of my life - the end of one, the start of the next. i need a new look, new style, to go with my new life. i'm pretty excited about this whole thing, you know. i get to re-invent myself at least a little. not completely, of course, because if i try and pass myself off as an exiled italian princess who was stripped of her riches and villa by the nazis in '62, the architect may call bullshit once or twice. and, let's not kid, there are people out there who look less italian than i do, but i think they are all from scandinavia.

i've decided to take the 'about a boy' approach to daily life:

I find the key is to think of a day as units of time, each unit consisting of no more than thirty minutes. Full hours can be a little bit intimidating and most activities take about half an hour. Taking a bath: one unit, watching countdown: one unit, web-based research: two units, exercising: three units, having my hair carefully disheveled: four units. It's amazing how the day fills up, and I often wonder, to be absolutely honest, if I'd ever have time for a job; how do people cram them in?

already i find my days filling up: blogging, two units; haircut & colour next wednesday, six units; thanksgiving dinner planning today, three units; scrabble, several dozen half units sprinkled throughout the day. see - i'm a very busy girl!

(i wonder if it's my turn at the scrabble yet? one mo....blast and consternation!)

that being said, i do have time to reconnect with people i've lost touch with over the years. for example, there is a boy who i was just this side of crippled by a crush for when i was heading into grade 10. he was a couple of years older than me, and was in a local theatre troupe. i saw him do improv and sold my soul for his heart. sadly, my 14 year old heart was only worth about $1.47 to the devil and he went off to school while i was left in peegee to pine.

when i was 19, i ran into him at a bar over christmas. we ended up talking and headed back to my place, then met up again for a few dates when he was back that summer. super nice guy - still a big presence in the theatre world. ran into him via the facebook - crush gone but i'm enjoying the conversations, so i'm going to try and have a drink with him before i leave the civilized world for the land of rape and money.

oh and maktaaq tagged me with a meme. that should be at LEAST two units for later in the week....

iran iran so far away

is anyone else here in love with andy samberg? seriously. so very hot. i'm pretty sure that if i lived in new york, or around 12th and oak, i probably would have been arrested for stalking jewish men. there's something about them - i dunno what it is. the sister agrees with me. the architect is puzzled. think aboout it though - adam sandler (back in the day); andy samberg, all three beastie boys... actually not all three, just mca but still.

ok i'm really blog-rusty. i have to get my groove back, but since the architect is away for a couple of weeks, this is my first day of unemployment (though i am going to go back and contract a few shifts over the next two weeks), and i really have not much else to do i guess i'll get back into the swing of things fairly quickly. give me a topic! what do you want to know?